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Authenticity is Everything
Roger Epperson.... Good Authenticator?
Hello everyone,
Please dont be misleaded by the title of this thread, as i am a huge fan of Roger's. I have bought numerous items from him and have had him look at numerous items. I will continue to buy form him with the utmost confidence. He has earned the reputation of being the best in the world for a good reason, and that is something to be very proud of.
I am a member over at startiger, and recently in a post entitled NE Autographs, located under the general discussion category, someone posted a commnet that i just cant live with. Someone had asked who was a good trusted authenticator and i mentioned epperson. A member their (screenname: hastemail), who i believe is form germany, posted in reply this comment:
"OUCH, I hope you haven't wasted too much money on pieces sold by Epperson. He has a LONG history of purchasing fake items from forgers. He even fooled RR Auction several times in the past by passing through obvicious forgeries which RR Auction had to take back then and fully refund the winning bidders. Roadhouse, stay FAR, FAR away from anything that is sold, reviewed or "authenticated" by Roger Epperson. That will save you a lot of money and trouble!"
I then posted a reply basically asking him if he was off his rocker for saying this, as ive never heard even rogers competition, or haters, say that he is a bad authenticator of forgeries. Even the guys at anl or alert. And thats saying something, even they know that hes the best, even though obviously mistakes are occasionally made.
Here is the reply that was given:
csink, you want me to name an example for Epperson's misjudgements... how about item 791 of the June 2009 auction at RR - a LP cover supposedly signed by all members of The Clash. When informing RR auction about this item, Trish replied with the following e-mail on June 6, 2009:
"Thanks so much for your patience as I researched your concern further. The Clash LP, item 791, in our current June 346 (2009) auction came with good provenance and was approved by our authenticators. It was originally sold by Sotheby’s Amazon in the UK.
This item was also reviewed and accepted as genuine by noted music autograph specialist Roger Epperson. As such, we stand behind this item with our lifetime money-back guarantee of authenticity.
We appreciate your sharing your concerns with us. Please feel free to contact me anytime if I may be of further assistance."
Best Regards,
Tricia
Tricia Eaton
Auction Processing Manager
RR Auction Company, LLC
BUT... a few weeks later another e-mail from Trish arrived and in it she explained they had pulled the item because the autographs were indeed NOT authentic. Read for yourself:
"I am writing in response to the recent post regarding The Clash album we offered for sale in our June 2009 auction. Thanks to one of our astute and experienced customer's concerns, we researched the signatures further.
After re-evaluating the item, we finally came to the conclusion that the autographs were indeed not authentic. As such, RRAuction honored our lifetime money-back guarantee to the winning bidder by refunding his purchase price in full.
Just wanted to let everyone here know RRAuction takes authenticity very seriously. During the rare occurrence that an authentication mistake is made, our company is known for doing the right thing and owning up to our initial oversight.
If you ever have any concerns in the future, please feel free to contact me anytime.
Best Regards,
Tricia
Tricia Eaton
Auction Processing Manager
RRAuction Company, LLC
It's extremely disconcerting that Roger Epperson would authenticate this item in the first place. If a simple collector can call fake on the album why not him, he's allegedly the "expert". That thing was so fake it stank. There's a lesson here for everyone. Educate yourself and trust no expert but one's self.
If you need further examples of Epperson's misjudgements, let me know
A further post went on to say this:
One of the most hilarious misjudgement made by Roger Epperson was when he "authenticated" Metallica's 2008 remastered vinyl re-issue of "Master Of Puppets" supposedly signed by Cliff Burton. The only problem here is that Cliff Burton died on September 27, 1986 which is 22 years before the remastered vinyl re-issue was even released to the public. Nevertheless, Roger Eppeson once again issued his report and certified the signature as authentic. 
I can't say it often enough: Educate yourself and trust no expert but one's self.
Now i kindly asked this individual to please post as a topic here on Live about eppersons mistakes and what his issue was with him, that way roger could reply to him, because not everyone is a member at startiger. The member however didnt do this and posted the messages pictured above. I do not think its fair to say these things about roger, they may be his mistakes, but we need to get his opinion on this and the issue can be debated. I have invited this member to this site to debate the issue, although i doubt we will ever hear from him.
Please, will everyone who reads this post your opinion of roger good or bad and your credentials. And responses to the above comments. I dont want some new members at startiger to read the response of one man and get the wrong impression. If your gonna make statements that roger is a bad apple, your gonna have to back them up.
I am very eager to read responses, so that i can share with the community at startiger as to what rogers real reputation is.
Thanks so much
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DB on
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sounds like it has already been done. So why reinvent the wheel. It appears that it's some sort of secret amongst a few and how that benefits the greater collecting community is beyond me.
@Roger, like all good consultants herein lies the problem; This isn't a "hobby" for me, it's my job. The work I do is not free. I put in over 23 years of learning and taking grief from creeps on fake blog sites to be giving away my work.
Why? Because for hundreds of thousands of collectors it's a hobby and not a job. btw, there is nothing wrong with your attitude for the most part. However, If everyone treated it like a job, Zarelli nor Rolf may never have exposed the Heston fiasco as but one example.
& as far as visible I wasn't referring to x amount of items in a catalog nor although referenced earlier in my comments about "tons" removed which I believe was Heritage but rather the implication that it was a clerical error.
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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on
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I'm sorry DB but I didn't "imply" anything. I just said you have no idea what happened but jump on the first person to point the finger's bandwagon. As to the Philly forgers, it's not re-inventing the wheel, it's something you have to keep up with everyday and I mean EVERYDAY. They are always changing things up. It's not cut and dry as a Heston sectretarial signature, it's a full time job.
As to the hundreds of thousands of collectors; I offer a service at a very resonable price, use it. I also give free opinions all the time to clients and people here. I pick and chose which ones I feel like doing. I've "donated" my fair share of free advise in this hobby.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on
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Well said.
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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on
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DB, have you ever considered working as a script-writer for a soap opera?
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You mean AML is not a spin off of As the World Turns... Or is it the WWE lol.
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Permalink Reply by mark peterson on
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Keep up the good work Roger!
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Permalink Reply by Lou reves on
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If R&R has so many things does Roger examine them in person or via digital photos like the quick opinion people do? Do he physically touch each piece? And want difference would it make?
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Good question. I have total faith in RR Auction and the people they use to look at autographs. With that being said let me explain something about digital images
From a digital image I can tell if something is fake or not. If the shape of the letters of the signature do not match up to known exemplars then there is no reason for me to see it in person as long as the digital file is given to me the way I ask. Having it on my desk will never change the shape of the signature no matter how many times I look at it. Nuff said
What I can't do is tell for 100% that it is authentic. THe shape of the signaure could be correct but it could be pre-printed, a good color copy, traced or letterpress stamped to name a few. In music I pretty mcuh have seen all the pre-printed fan club cards and photos and keep them on file. What I trust in RR Auction is that they do what I would before they send me the image like, is the ink correct, is the paper correct, is it in the photo, is the album from the correct era etc. We have worked together for so long now it's like a well oiled machine. There is no need except for on a few rare occasions that it needs for me to see it in person from RR Auction.
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DB,
Your reply makes no sense:
@Roger, like all good consultants herein lies the problem; This isn't a "hobby" for me, it's my job. The work I do is not free. I put in over 23 years of learning and taking grief from creeps on fake blog sites to be giving away my work.
Why? Because for hundreds of thousands of collectors it's a hobby and not a job. btw, there is nothing wrong with your attitude for the most part. However, If everyone treated it like a job, Zarelli nor Rolf may never have exposed the Heston fiasco as but one example.
You've seen Roger give untold hours of free help and participation on this site, the numerous articles he's written for us, and likely the many people who have thanked him on this site for helping them avoid being defrauded or getting refunds.
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No argument with any of this. The point was - Who are these Philly Forgers? What are some examples? Why is it being treated as if it's a state secret and only a few should know or be kept candidly via emails?
Not implyng that one need to devulge their years of discovery on the flip side however there must be a happy medium especially if it assists collectors in avoiding bad purchases. I would also have reason to believe it expands the inquiries to the expert as a result more often than not and I know that personally.
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It's not a secret being held. It's just not that easy to describe as they have done so many different things. I could show you a Journey where they put the Steve Perry on it and another one where someone else put Perry and Dunbar on it. The bad news is they hit every decent band there is. It's for me to say, "when looking at an item that has a very hard to get signer like Phil Rudd of AC/DC, take a VERY careful look at that signature (along with the others too) but that one most important and also find out if you can what side of the country did it come from? If it looks odd and it's the East Coast, run away. Soon though it will be on the west coast too but you have to start somewhere. Like I said DB this is a fulltime job keeping up with this stuff and I just dont have the time to write full length stories about these things. Hope this helps.
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Permalink Reply by Barry S on
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He sure helped me Steve. (As well as you) No telling how much time he spent on me, and for no more than a pat on the back. You are right, he tells the truth and he is not scared. And at that time everyone was afraid of the mighty Gladstone. I will be forever grateful for what he did. And you as well.
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